From a reader:
I just wanted to express my delight that I am about to go (at 6.00pm GMT here in England) to the last Mass I shall ever attend where the 1973 lame-duck translations of the propers are said.
Congratulations! Your American counterparts also have this joy.
However, if you think you are going to be wracked with nostalgia at the loss of the lame-duck translation, you could go to Mass during the week.
The new, corrected translation will be implemented in full on the 1st Sunday of Advent, and its anticipated Mass.
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I remember about two years ago “boy, we have a bit to go before the new translation”, and now, it’s only eight days away. Deo gratias.
I did learn, somewhat recently, that the music director of my parish believes not only Latin but chant is too much for our parish to handle. So we will be getting “The Mass of Renewal” music, approved, of course, by the USCCB, instread of plain chant and its haunting, gorgeous transcendent beauty. But at least the spoken language of our liturgy will be vastly improved!
While I’m grateful for the new and corrected translation, I cannot get excited about this.
The rubrics have not changed.
The music has not changed (in either substance or in correct parts to be sung)
The superinfiltration of EHMCs will still be there.
My prayer for the forseeable future regarding the Missale Roman Editio Typica 2000 (with revised translation 2011) is that the rubrics will become less ambiguous and the proper postures (ad orientem) and actions (genuflections and signs of the cross) are returned or “ported over” from the TLM.
Everyone should go to Mass on Friday, November 25th! :-)
I agree with A.William, the text will be better; however, at my parish we will have the same awful music non-stop except when the priest is reciting Mass prayers and since the rubrics have been ignored for years I am guessing no one will notice anything new is going on. It is particularly distressing because the diocese spent minimum time at educating the faithful. They were told briefly in dated bulletin inserts that a new translation is coming on the 27th but we heard precious little from the pulpit. When someone mentioned chant for the new Mass she was informed that we cannot do it because if we did it many in the congregation would leave the parish.
Hope the SSPX will be regularized soon otherwise we are still left in liturgical Siberia. I know the new translation is an improvement but we hoped for so much more.
My own blog post this coming Sunday will be titled “Consummatum est!” Need I say more?
The ONLY reason it’s been delayed (the last time they did this, it just appeared on Easter Vigil 1973 in the Diocese of Trenton…), I think, is so Haugen, Haas, and the rest of the bong-smoking generation that have been writing their drivel since the heady days of the 60s…had to have enough time to butcher up some new ditties to torture us with, around which we will be graced to celebrate this new and corrected translation.
Something no one has ever been able to explain to me is why a musician (Haugen) who is a member of one of the moderately out-there wacko protestant sects (United Church of Christ) is bowed down before for the majority of Church musicians. What business does this aged counterculture icon (ever seen his website?) who doesn’t even BELIEVE in what the Church teaches have in writing music that accompanies the prayers of our Mass? Or why we’re still singing the St Louis Jesuit campfire songs. I know, I’m asking questions for which, if we really found out the answer, we’d be mounting a orthodox “Occupy Oregon Catholic Press” or “Occupy Liturgical Training Publications” or…well, you get my drift.
8 long days. Seemed like just decades ago, this process was started. Can. Not. Wait.
The rubrics changed in Canada. Apparently priests were permitted to ad-lib during various parts. There was a rubric for, “or similar words” or something to that effect. Now that option is gone.
@APX: “The rubrics changed in Canada. Apparently priests were permitted to ad-lib during various parts. There was a rubric for, “or similar words” or something to that effect. Now that option is gone.”
****That really explains alot……..
@capebretoner
Are you being sarcastic? I was at an open forum the other night about regarding the corrected translation and GIRM. One of the priests literally brought up the “say the black; do the red” and explained that ad-libbing is no longer permitted in the rubrics, and “God-willing, obedience with shower through the Church.”
APX: or as my dad, a Navy veteran would opine: maybe drag them up on deck and scrub them off with the stiff bristle brushes of tradition, lathering them up with the brown soap of orthodoxy, and hose them down with the fire hose of the hermeneutic of continuity. Maybe that would get the stench out.
As for the Mass of Renewal, most of it in my view is dreck. One of the memorial acclamations, “When we eat this bread, and drink this cup {chalice?}” is solemn and somewhat moving.
One moment of solemnity in a sea of sentimentality.
Hey, be glad. This is:
a) an improvement from the perspective of the laity in the pews.
b) much bigger than you think from the viewpoint of various dissident groups. The last 40 years has been a protracted and nasty dispute and they lost, and lost big, much bigger than what you are about to hear suggests. Symbolically, this was major.
Mr Boyle: thank you for bringing up the subject of the music. We are also stuck with the “Mass of Creation” setting for the sung parts of the new translation. It feels like singing Angus Dei to the tune of Kumbayah imo. Why can we not find composers worthy of our Mass?
I am very excited! One more week to go, and my new hand missal should be arriving on Monday!
Seriously the “Mass of Creation” setting felt like a poke in the eye. Like someone thought “new translation, huh? Oh yeah well imma write some SPECIAL music just for that…”
The new, corrected translation will be implemented in full on the 1st Sunday of Advent, and its anticipated Mass.
Theoretically true.
The only thing I’m dreading is the new and extra lame “everyone remains standing throughout Communion and sings the communion Chant together as a sign of unity, then when everyone is done we may have a moment of silent thanksgiving” rubric. When I was 10 we had a priest who tried to implement something like this, and it didn’t go over too well. It was the first thing scrapped when he got transferred.
Why can’t we all remain kneeling through communion as a sign of unity in our belief that we’re not eating bread and/or drinking wine, but receiving the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus?
This whole “sign of unity” thing makes me wonder if they ever read the definitions of “unity” and “uniformity”? There’s a difference. Unity ? Uniformity.
Um, frjim4321,
It will not only be theoretically true; it will be actually true, whether those few who are pouting over this right now want to hear that or not. It’s happened. It’s done.
One of my clever children, when he was about 2, decided one day to lay down on the floor and kick and scream like in the movies to see if he could get what he wanted with brute force and sheer noise. Being an experienced mother of clever children, I took a step backward, pointed and laughed. It is THE cure, and of course, it worked; it was pretty funny looking and at that moment it became obvious to him too. It never happened again. Even that little kid realized that that kind of display was beneath him, being the clever little 2 year old that he was.
As a daily Mass-goer, I will not be able to break out the Martinelli’s until next Saturday morning. However, I did hear one priest use the new translation last Tuesday at a parish in Westchester, NY where I had never attended any Mass before. At first, I thought he was ad-libbing until I realized what he was doing. Then it seemed like an improvement. Just using “chalice” instead of “cup” makes a big difference.
We have had “Mass of Renewal” here for a while now in anticipation of the new translation. I cannot stand it. When I first heard it I was in shock because I had been reading liturgy blogs and hoping so much that it would be a good opportunity to more fully implement the Church’s preference for chant as the ideal of liturgical music. They picked it because they could use it both at the praisenworship Mass and at the regular Masses. We even have the Sanctus from Mass of Renewal at our daily Masses. I went to confession one time and confessed that I never sing the Mass of Renewal parts and get angry when the young people sitting near me sing it loudly in a sensuous pop music style (that the music itself invites). My confessor told me I have to sing it. I try to, and of course I try not to be upset with other people I am worshiping with which is a misery and very bad, but it still disturbs me, it’s a style of music I have always disliked (I have been bothered by pop music since I was a child, it is not simply a matter of rarefied liturgical tastes) and to me doesn’t belong at Mass. I have tried asking when are we going to learn the Missal chants. So far we have not. Hopefully we will start now… I really wish the norm would have been to learn the missal chants first.
The other nearby parish picked a more traditional setting (might be Mass of the Resurrection?) which I don’t hate. It’s still not chant though.
It would be great if we could jettison the current version of Mass scripture readings and use either the RSV or, here’s a novel idea, the Vulgate. I’m sorry, but “fight the good fight” and “compete well” do not mean the same thing.
The new, corrected translation will be implemented in full on the 1st Sunday of Advent, and its anticipated Mass.
Please, please … Can we “anticipate” next Sunday’s Mass seven days in advance?
;)
Elizabeth D: You “have to sing it” as obedience to your spiritual director and confessor. But it’s not a general commandment. I’m sure he wouldn’t have wanted to give any impression that, say, mute people are going to Hell, or that hoarse people commit a mortal sin on days when they can’t sing along, or that nobody is allowed to remain silent, mouthe the words, or say them instead of singing them. Because that would be deeply silly, not to mention some kind of presumption against the generous freedom provided to us by Mother Church. So I hope he did specify this.
Meanwhile, everybody can sing to the old translation:
Na na na na
Na na na na
Heia hey
Va-le.
Honestly, I would disregard such advice, reverently, but still disregard. Our Lord uses human beings-priests–to bring us his mercy. Awesome. Opinions about proper liturgical music? Not guaranteed by the Sacrament.
The new Missals were on sale at our parish this evening – with the new translation – but there has still not ONE WORD that this translation will come into effect next Sunday – and the few people I mentioned it to haven’t a clue. I foresee lots of confusion – and total disregard of what’s in the book. FYI, my parish is located just outside of Montreal, Quebec, Canada – and we need LOTS of prayers!
At the Saturday Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of Christ the King, our pastor spoke about the big change coming next weekend. He spoke about the new translation, and that we would find it formal and challenging, but that by this time next year, we’d “have it under our belts”. He then spoke admiringly about the 40-year-old translation that was being retired… how it had helped so many people worship over the years, celebrate the sacraments, etc., and that in a way, it held the prayers of all those who had prayed with it. So it was carried out in the recessional to the tune of “Crown Him With Many Crowns”; next week the new Missal will be carried in the processional and blessed at Mass.
As the old Missal left, my thought was “don’t let the door hit you on the way out!” but I was reminded by my mother that that old Missal was the only text I had ever known, for better or for worse, my entire life. It was the “lame-duck” version of the Gloria, the Nicene Creed, etc., that I learned as a child in Catholic school.
So, in a way, I feel it is a bit of a bitter-sweet moment. I will say a kind “thank you” to the old “Sacramentary”, and a hearty “welcome!!!” to the new Roman Missal. Looking forward to next weekend!
APX said: Why can’t we all remain kneeling through communion as a sign of unity in our belief that we’re not eating bread and/or drinking wine, but receiving the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus?
Dear APX – You can and should kneel both when you receive Our Lord AND throughout Communion. It is time to start taking back the Church from the Modernists who have been directing us for 40 years and who have wrecked the Church. Our parish life has been stolen from us and this change in translation is the perfect opportunity to start taking the parishes back. The Modernists directed our priests to turn their backs on God, they demolished our altar rails, and they stole our silence. Let’s start working to regain what was lost and put the Modernists on the defensive. Kneel to worship God, and maybe others will follow – what else does one do in the Presence of the Almighty? Start convincing fellow parishioners to do the same thing, and to start asking not if, but when the altar rail is coming back and when, oh when, will the priests once again turn toward the Lord? And women, start wearing veils, and men, start wearing suits, to be an example to others that the Liturgy really matters. One by one we can and must make a difference. And above all, we must each strive to be HOLY and PRAY and DO PENANCE unceasingly for ALL priests and bishops. Our Lord is counting on us…
My family will hear the present translation two more times, tomorrow and Thanksgiving. There were hints months ago by my parish priest that they were not sure they were going to say “for many” instead of “for all”. I’m praying the priests of my parish just say the black when the time comes. I’ve shared my intent with my wife to find a new parish if they don’t.
Regarding the music, I anticipate very little change. I’m going to ask our music director if we could pretty please drop the chorus/refrain Gloria. We all know the new words and melody now. Even though our bishop asked us to all learn a different version, we’ll use the Mass of Renewal by Curtis Stephan. At least I haven’t seen the bongos lately.
Sir Alec Guinness (1914-2000), were he alive today, would be quite happy with this development. His words:
“Much water has flown under the Tiber’s bridges, carrying away splendor and mystery from Rome since the Pontificate of Pius XII…. [T]he banalities and translations which have ousted the sonerous Latin and Greek are of a supermarket quality which is quite unacceptable. Hand shaking and embarrassed smiles or smirks have replaced the older courtesies: kneeling is out, queuing is in, and the general tone is like a BBC radio broadcast for tiny tots.”
I am looking forward to the new translation (and my new copy of the Scepter Press Daily Roman Missal) as I attend the OF for daily mass. My usual parish started using the Benedictine altar arrangement so with the new translation, it is going to be about as good as it can get here in the ‘burbs aka the land of no altar rails or high altars. The parish will have a potluck and presentation with the new mass settings which I will attend to see which was chosen since there will be some OF masses we attend where parts of the mass will be sung (first Fridays, first Saturdays, Memorial Day, Labor Day etc)
I am worried that Fr. Z. will declare victory and “go off the air!” ;)
That happened to me earlier in our our diocese in Australia. Best…feeling…ever! However, when I went to WYD it reared it’s ugly head again because we had priests from another diocese in our group. But we’ll never have to hear it again! And it can only get better from here!
To add a positive comment, last Sunday I listened to several of the new musical settings on YouTube, which I was only slightly surprsied to see had quite a few uploaded. The one I liked the best was Christopher Walker’s Belmont Mass, and not because it reminds me of Belmont Park. One comment on the upload was that it had a chant-like sound, and I agreed with that. I actually saw cards with the Belmont Mass in the pews at one of the parishes I frequent on weekdays, so I see room for hope. But sadly, all the old settings were re-released with minor adjustments, and I saw more of the warmed-over old stuff than new, improved material. I do give all the authors credit for not changing the words, which is a big step in the right direction, even if it was mandated by higher powers. Hopefully, the musicians at the local level will at least use the updated versions.
Where I am, we have already adopted the ‘new postures’, which here includes standing after receiving Communion (until everyone else has done so) and only kneeling for the Consecration.
I am, shall we say, exceedingly displeased by this. I am not alone in this.
Please, please pray for me. The changes in posture in this diocese make me willing to live with the present mistranslation rather than the corrected translation if only we could go back to the kneeling that we had before! This from a lover of Latin and a devotee of the usus antiquior. Pray for this diocese in which I dwell.
I am curious to know what the fate of all the old Sacramentaries will be. I have given away several of my older hand missals to students who’ve wanted them for the Mass readings. Will you all just be filing these long-used books on a shelf in the sacristy somewhere?
I have mixed feelings about this. Having endured this translation for so long, I am half-tempted to advocate a proper burial for the old sacramentary. That said, it has certainly played a part in sustaining the faith of several generations and it is due reverence and respect.
So, what are YOU doing?
@Hidden One
I hear you on the standing after Communion. It’s like that across Canada. It gets in the way of people making a spiritual communion during communion. It makes no sense to me, aside from the “force everyone to sing during communion”. I can’t sing during communion, as the host is still dissolving in my mouth, or I am struggling to get a giant chunk of it unstuck from the roof of my mouth, etc. I can’t speak/sing with that going on, nor can I in good conscience remain standing.
That sounds like retribution, pure and simple. Can they MAKE you stand?
Hidden One, whether you stand all during communion depends on where you are. GIRM 43 provides that in the USA:
At the vigil Mass last night, the music director jumped the gun and had us sing the proper Gloria. Most people fumbled for the crib notes at the end of the pew. I was able to sing it out with pleasure.
APX: Actually, I have it on good authority from a priest and a couple seminarians that it shall not be like that in all Canadian dioceses… including the one or two I shall visit over Christmas.
catholicmidwest: I know, courtesy of Cardinal Arinze, that at least before now bishops were not to punish those who knelt if the bishop instructed them to stand after Communion. (Leave them “in peace, and not in pieces” if I recall His Eminence’s sentiment correctly.) I do not know if the bishop now has the authority to make such orders. Certainly, he can request it.
I also know that the bishop here is under a lot of pressure from elements that have ecclesiological, doctrinal, and liturgical standpoints dramatically at odds with those of the Pope, and that the bishop genuinely wishes good for souls. He is, I think, mistaken as to what will achieve that, but he means well, and he is doing some good things in the diocese. I will also say that he is not one for doctrinal compromise. All of this does not mean that I am unwilling to tell him that I think he is wrong when (if?) I next speak with him.
jhayes: Indeed, you are certainly correct.
Today we had the Gloria and Credo in the new translation. The Gloria was put to bad music, though and the Credo, well let’s just say that many people were NOT using the cards provided. My fear is that the music settings in the Revised Missal will not be followed and we will still have terrible music to accompany the propers. Oh well, I live in Boston after all. I’ll still have to offer it up.
Siciliano, my understanding is that all parishes in the Boston archdiocese are supposed to use the ICEL chants during advent but can switch to their own choice in January.
See http://www.bostoncatholic.org/newromanmissal.aspx
jhayns: thanks for the link. I listened to some of the chants. They are beautiful. When you say, though, that during advent the ICEL chants are to be used, does that mean the current lame duck ones and then they are to change to the new ones? Or are the ICEL chants the new ones and then priests, in January, can use either the revised chant melodies or the old lame-duck melodies. As you can see, I’m confused.
But being confused in Boston in regards to the liturgy and music is commonplace……
I second Andy Milam’s post.
The priests still face the wrong direction, closing the circle in with the Faithful, going nowhere, with their backs to God.
Laywomen continue to roam the sanctuaries.
Our Lord is profaned by being placed in the hands of communicants.
All this is, is a more accurate translation of a bad original. The novus ordo is still a rupture with the Roman Rite of Catholic worship.
As I understand it, all RCAB parishes are supposed to use the chants you listened to on that page during Advent. After that, they can use whatever they want.
See the June 24 memo in he left column.
mrose, for a while after I came back to the Church, all I wanted was the Traditional Rite and I’m a child of the V2 era. It’s beautiful, sacred, reverent, and all that. However, I have come to the conclusion that in spite of all of it’s beauty (Trad Rite), when the Mass is said in the language of the people, and done beautifully, sacredly, reverently, and all that, then the spriritual benefits are much more abundant. All you have to do is attend Mass at the Church of Our Saviour in NYC (my favorite) and you’ll understand what I’m talking about (all NO priests should take lessons from that Parish). What it boils down to is this, it doesn’t matter what language the Mass is in, just do it right. Either way, we get Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament.
Jhayes, Thanks!
Hidden One,
Mass postures can’t be regulated down to that detail. I believe there was a clarification after Bishop William Higi in Indiana started insisting that everyone stand until the last person had received Communion. He also said that parishes had to start the Communion from the rear pews.
Knowing that it is not disobedience to disobey an unlawful order, I always just went back to my pew and knelt. I don’t care what everyone else around me did. If it was a matter of “conscience” for them, more power to them. I don’t do silliness unless it is lawful silliness.
Thanks be to God for a more faithful translation, there will be many benefits. I may attend the local NO Mass to see how the changes sound and how it affects the atmosphere. The last time I went there was alot of hand holding, EMHCs, and raised arms in the air. I still prefer the EF Mass but am happy that for those who attend vernacular Masses that they will finally get a new, better translation. I think overall it will bring a bit of formality that it more appropriate for Mass anyways. At least I hope so. Good Luck everyone with implementation and thanks to everyone who will make it possible and successful in their parishes.Especially to the Priests who will faithfully implement this new translation. The people are behind you, supporting you.
Mitchell NY, there are some National rules for the US approved by Rome. see 42 to 45 here:
GIRM
Basically, you kneel after the Agnus Dei unless your local bishop says to stand.
Hidden One, I believe we are in the same diocese, and I fully share your distress.
This change to standing during the Communion Rite appears to be an initiative of some Canadian bishops. Certainly, the GIRM, as posted on the CCCB website, does not mention it. I will be scrutinizing the rubrics when I get my new missal tomorrow.
I do not know yet just what I will do. Please pray for us here. (Note, there are no EF masses available in the diocese, which covers quite a large territory.)
I got to practice, and thus hear, the new settings for the music today. I almost wish we could keep the old. I forget the name of the Mass, it is not the Mass of Creation, but it was composed by Haugen, and it is hideous.
@Hidden One
I hope one of those diocese is my home diocese where I shall have to attend Christmas Eve Mass. It’s not the case in the diocese I am in at the moment; however, I’m for the most part safe as I regularly attend the EF Mass. Regardless of what the postures are in my home diocese, if I get to the church on Christmas Eve and I see a guitar and amp placed next to the ambo again this year, and the homily is a sing-a-long, I’m falling to my knees and making an Act of Reparation. Just once in my life I’d like to attend a Christmas Eve Mass that is actually treated like the solemnity that it is.
We’ve been doing the new translation in our parish, on the weekdays, for about three weeks.
Our church is Our Lady of Mercy, in Port Hope, Ontario. Heh. I ordered the Chapel Edition
of the new missal around the beginning of September, from the CCCB website. It’s release date
was November 10, and I got my copy around the beginning of October. I brought it to Mass, the
next day, and Father Sany couldn’t wait to get his hands on it. I loaned it to him until the Parish
copy comes in. A week later, he was using my missal for the weekday masses!
Strangely, the Parish still doesn’t have the new missal. I’m glad that I thought to loan him my copy
otherwise he would have had little time to study it.
Eric
In my diocese, the Knights of Columbus pooled their own personal money into a fund and bought a new missal for each and every parish in the diocese. It was awesome. All the parishes have one and everyone knows it. No excuses.
@ JenB: I just googled both Marty Haugen and David Hass and I do believe that you did hear a revised Mass of Creation or if you didn’t then you eventually will. I heard Haugen’s revised M. O. C. and Hass’s revised Mass of Light on youtube and they are beyond hideous. Sigh, I know that is what I’ll be hearing here in Boston.
Hidden one,
Certainly the bishop can request it. But does that mean that he can overrule the Holy See? And does that mean he can prevent you from bending your knees? They are your knees.
Catholicity: I know they couldn’t be; I am not so certain that they can’t be. In any case, few are the places around here where I would consider it more prudent to disobey than to obey, if in fact (as I would like to believe) the bishop’s order in that regard is not binding. There are enough unnecessary troubles caused by traditionalists around here.
Karen Russell: Conceivable. This diocese doesn’t have an EF Mass, at the moment, although it used to, in an out-of-the-way spot. I never made it to one of them there, though.
APX: I hope that you are so blessed come Christmas. Be glad that you can attend the EF at all.
Siciliano,
There are chants provided but that doesn’t mean that liturgists (glorified piano players) will use them. Most of the parishes around here are opting to pay good money for revised mass settings, some of which sound even worse than the old ones. No matter. This will change too, eventually. The tide has turned.
It is the Storrington Mass, and like I said it is atrocious, even for someone like me – tone deaf.
Just to see how much variation there is, here’s a survey of 73 parishes in the Twin Ciies area. Among them, they have chosen 28 different Mass settings.
http://tcromanmissal.blogspot.com/2011/10/mass-settings-for-advent-i.html
Why do these parish musicians continue to torture us with these grotesque musical settings, ie. Haugen and Haas?
Looks as if only 4 out of 73 are using the Missal chants.
They’re using the chant setting in this diocese here.
stilicho,
It’s more complicated than you might think. After Vatican II, the music was all changed because the texts were all changed, and an industry grew up around the music of the mass, to provide missalettes, etc. This was fueled by a list of things:
a) the need for people to have something to sing from, a hymnal more or less.
b) the oft-touted demand for people to put away missals and other liturgy aids, accompanied by ridicule in some cases.
c) the simple ease and economy of using a missalette rather than buying and carrying a missal.
d) the emergence of a group of “liturgy coordinators” pushing for “professionalization,” and trying to shove into place the pieces to force that to happen.
e) the attempt to prevent laypeople from policing what happens during the mass, word changes, etc.
In most places, all this “machinery” is still in place. A great many people are used to the missalettes and don’t carry missals anymore, and don’t want to pay for them. People in the parish offices are used to paying for liturgical music, even if NOW they can obtain music for free from the missal, and they probably won’t change until someone makes a fuss about the expense. Liturgists are still trying to “professionalize” and will keep as much as they are allowed to grab. Some priests who don’t like the translations are hoping they can quietly get away with paraphrases (ad libs) or borrowings from someplace, because many people won’t be checking.
I don’t know about you or anybody else, but I’m going to be carrying my little missal to church so I can pray along with the words because words have meaning. I’ll also be politely but persistently asking why we’re paying for things we can get for free, in the case of music. It may take a long time, but between the economy and my persistent questions, maybe we can wear this situation down. That’s how things get changed.